


Valentine's Day Isn't Always Terrible

by Claire3467



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Identity Reveal, Valentine's Day, adrien gets cookies, adrien is so oblivious, i didnt mean to make them sad, i still dont really know how, it just sort of happened, plagg is not, theres kim/max but its just a mention so i feel guilty actually tagging them, tikki is comforting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 02:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5809693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire3467/pseuds/Claire3467
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year after a Valentine's Day near death experience, one member of our duo has finally worked up the courage to ask out her crush, while the other is ready to retry his declaration of love. With so much good and bad luck floating around, who knows what will happen?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valentine's Day Isn't Always Terrible

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is literally the longest thing I have ever written, including school papers. I don't know what black magic Papapillon put into this show but these dorks have literally taken over my life.   
> I meant for this to be a silly happy fluffy thing and... something went wrong.

Things had been going rather well for Marinette until that day. School was great, the akumas seemed to be getting easier to fight (This, unfortunately, left more time for a certain partner to make truly _terrible_ puns. She, in turn, had to keep reminding herself that Ladybug and Chat Noir were supposed to be a team, and that pushing him off a roof because he couldn’t go ten minutes without saying something groan-worthy may upset that dynamic slightly.), and she had been spending an increasing amount of time with _Adrien_. Her parents adored him, and as a result he had a standing invitation to the Dupain-Cheng house (and a reminder to help himself to anything in the kitchen). She was even able to carry on extended conversations with him, which was certainly better than stuttering and accidentally calling him amazing and handsome every other word. Alya had suggested that spending more time with her crush may help her see him as more of a person instead of the perfection incarnate that she had built him up to be. This may have worked, if Adrien was not, in fact, perfection incarnate as far as Marinette was concerned. The more she got to know him, the more she learned how sweet he was, how caring and smart and funny and-. Well, suffice to say that her feelings for him had not diminished in the slightest. If anything, she was inching ever closer to wanting to use the L-word when thinking of him. Even though sometimes his smile or the gleam in his eyes or his jokes almost reminded her of… She didn’t allow herself to travel down that path for too long. Ladybug and Chat Noir were friends, nothing more. And _Marinette_ and Chat Noir most certainly did _not_ need to even consider that.

Yes, life was going well. Until it suddenly wasn’t.

She blamed the cat.

***

It had started out like any other day. Valentine’s Day, of course, but they still had school and homework and patrol and supervillans to battle- normal teenage things. The previous night on patrol, Ladybug had only semi-jokingly said that they should just try to keep Chloe away from… well, everyone, really. Adrien had laughed and responded with his usual response (“Anything for you, my lady.”) but in reality it just helped another piece of the puzzle fall into place.

Ladybug _should_ have had no real way of knowing the true number of akuma victims that Chloe was responsible for. He had teasingly asked her what she had against Chloe, and was rewarded with rolled eyes and a light swat. However, Adrien knew that Ladybug disliked the other girl based on previous interactions, and knew that she knew Chloe had been responsible for Kim’s akumatization…

Ladybug had been in the school for Horrificator. And the hotel for Kung Food. She was amazing at Ultimate Mecha Strike III, knew all of his classmates by name, had short blue-black pigtails and the most amazing blue eyes… And the more time he spent with Marinette, the more of Ladybug’s bravery and intelligence and wit he saw when he looked at her.  

He still didn’t have anything definitive, though. (Other than that she wasn’t 5000 years old. If he wasn’t, she wasn’t.) Even so, he was beginning to think that maybe he didn’t have two crushes after all. Not enough to confront her, or even start dropping hints. Even – _especially­_ \- if he was right, he knew how much the secret mattered to her. Until he knew for sure how she’d react, he’d stay quiet. Ladybug was the love of his life, but she was also his best friend. He wouldn’t risk alienating her for the world.

Which is why he was in his current dilemma: the question of whether or not to finally use the     L-word with his lady. Last year hadn’t gone quite according to plan, but he was keeping his fingers crossed that Paris could manage to not be in peril for just one day. He’d even settle for one patrol. Just long enough to get that one short sentence out. He still hadn’t worked out all the kinks in how to approach the subject, and Plagg had been no help. The little kwami had pretended to vomit and then promptly fell asleep.

It really shouldn’t have been so hard. Even if he was still working through his feelings for Marinette, he had known how he felt for Ladybug for what seemed like his entire life. That should have made it easier to get the words out.

Shouldn’t it?

***

Marinette was seriously questioning her sanity. She had finally gotten to a stage that could comfortably be defined as friendship with Adrien, and she was probably about to screw it all up. On Valentine’s Day. At school. Where she had to sit behind him for the rest of the year. She groaned, feeling proud that it wasn’t a full out scream, and laid her head on her desk a little harder than was technically needed.

Alya’s comforting hand rested between her shoulder blades. “Chill out, girl! It’s gonna be fine.”

Marinette turned to look at her. “Where is he? He’s always here by now!” Just because the pull down schedule was gone from her room didn’t mean she didn’t know that Adrien _always_ got to school well before her.

So naturally, the one day that Marinette arrived early to school in the hopes of getting Adrien alone for a few moments was the day that he was running late. She _had_ to have been spending too much time with Chat Noir for her luck to have been this bad.

Of _course_ Adrien was the last one to get to class and of _course_ he went home for the lunch break so she couldn’t try to get him alone then.

Stupid, _stupid_ cat.

She was disappointed for more than one reason that Adrien went home, though. She had been worried that they may have a repeat of last year’s fiasco with Kim and Chloé, but it seemed like her fears were unfounded. She decided that Max looked even happier than when they won the tournament. She’d never seen Kim smile so much either.

It seemed that the only chance she was going to get was after school. Thankfully, her luck finally managed to turn around, and their last class let out a couple minutes early. With an encouraging smile from Alya, she finally pulled the heart-shaped box out of her bag, took a deep breath… and panicked.

“Oh my God, I can’t do this!” She half-shrieked, turning to go back to the classroom, the bathroom, literally _anywhere that Adrien wasn’t._

She tried to turn, anyway. She only made it about halfway before Alya grabbed her shoulders. “Yes, yes you can. You have been stressing about this all week. All you have to do is walk up to him and hand him the box. Maybe throw in a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day Adrien, this is for you’ if you can get your vocal cords to work.”

“Nooooooooooo I can’t I’m gonna trip and fall on him or crush the box or drop it on him or-” Marinette didn’t get to finish listing the possible catastrophes (no, she _so_ did not need to think of him right now), as Alya chose that moment to give her friend a helpful shove. Literally. _Directly towards Adrien._

She tried to force herself not to hyperventilate, and maybe turn invisible if she could manage it. She apparently could not, as Adrien turned to smile at her, and every thought in her head disappeared. She thought she probably squeaked.

She was _definitely_ going to murder that cat.

***

Adrien was amazed that he hadn’t walked into anything yet. (Grateful, yes, since his father may have killed him if he damaged his face, but amazed all the same.) His mind had been… well, Ladybug probably wasn’t actually a million miles away, given that he was almost positive that she lived in Paris, but she may as well have been. He had been so absorbed in trying to figure out how to make her actually believe that he wasn’t joking or idly flirting that he probably wouldn’t have noticed if an akuma had landed a meter in front of him.

Which was a major component in his surprise when Marinette seemingly appeared out of thin air in front of him, looking like she was going to pass out. He smiled, more genuine than his usual automatic smile. Marinette hadn’t looked this nervous around him since before the first time he came over.

“Hey, Marinette. What’s in the box?” The car wasn’t here just yet, and he belatedly realized that he had completely ignored all his friends today in favor of thinking of his lady. Had she been carrying that box all day?

“A-adrien, I wan-wanted to-”

“Aww, how cute! Sabrina, look. Marinette’s finally asking out her crush!” Chloé had not appeared out of thin air, but Adrien had been hoping that if he pointedly ignored her, she’d take the hint and leave them alone. He had been so hopeful, in fact, that he hadn’t even considered the possibility that she would continue coming over, much less- Did she just say crush?

He turned back to Marinette, more than a little in shock. He was about to say something when she suddenly shoved the box into his arms, squeaked something that sounded vaguely like “for you”, and sprinted away, her face even redder than before Chloé had appeared. He checked another box in the back of his mind at her speed, but he couldn’t devote too much of his thinking ability to confirming the identity of his partner. _Crush?_

He barely registered Chloé and Sabrina laughing beside him, but it was Alya rushing by that finally snapped him out of his daze. He grabbed her arm, being careful not to drop Marinette’s gift.

“Alya?” He stared at her, wondering if his eyes were as wide as they felt.

Her glare softened as she seemed to realize that he really had no idea what was going on. She sighed, glancing in the direction that her best friend had ran. “You really didn’t realize?” She looked almost pitying now.

“I- I thought that…” Honestly, he had used to think that she didn’t like him, since she ran away whenever Adrien came near her but had no problem talking to Chat. But then that had stopped as well, and lately he had just been trying so hard to figure out if he could connect the two most important girls in his life that he hadn’t even spared a thought to the idea that her shyness was caused by a crush. “I have to go talk to her.”

Alya smiled, and of course his determination summoned the car from wherever it had been hiding, which meant talking to Marinette was suddenly not an option. He glared at it, wishing, not for the first time, that his father was someone who he could actually risk upsetting. He sighed. “Tell her I’ll call her later, okay?”

She nodded, finally jogging off after her friend. Adrien slid into the car, really hoping he hadn’t ruined everything.

_Crush?_

***

Marinette hardly noticed as her mother called out to her as she ran past. She could barely see through her tears, and her parents didn’t need her breaking down in the bakery. She only tripped once making it up the stairs to her room, but she didn’t even try to make it up to her loft. She practically fell onto her chaise lounge, finally letting herself flat out sob.

Tikki flew out of her purse immediately, snuggling her small body as close to Marinette’s face as she could. She didn’t try to say anything, knowing that nothing she could say to her charge would really make her feel any better. They stayed that way until Alya pounded up the stairs to Marinette’s room, Tikki zipping under the pillow just as the other girl entered.

“Oh, Marinette. Come here,” she said, pulling her into a hug. She held her, gently rubbing her back as Marinette continued to sob. “It’s gonna be okay. I talked to him,” she said as gently as she could, hoping to help ease her friend’s mind.

Marinette sniffed, lifting her head from Alya’s shoulder. “R-really? Does he think I’m a fr-freak?” This prompted another round of tears, Alya patiently waiting until Marinette had calmed down enough to listen.

“Of course not!” She exclaimed. “Come on, you know he wouldn’t ever say that!”

Marinette offered a weak smile.

“In fact… He said he’d call you later!”

Marinette shrieked, falling backwards onto the floor. Tikki gave her her best approximation of a thumbs up from under the pillow, grinning madly. “Really?! He said that! Did he open the box? Did he read the note? Did he say anything else?” By this point, Marinette was gripping Alya’s shoulders with a force that was probably fairly uncomfortable for her.

Alya just laughed though, clearly relieved to see Marinette so excited. “No, he had to leave, but I’m sure you’ll get to ask him when he calls!”

This produced another round of excited shrieking and hugging which lasted for at least twenty minutes before they finally had to admit that there was still homework due the next day, and that getting in trouble for late work may interfere with any possible dates. _Dates!_ With _Adrien!_

Maybe Chat’s luck hadn’t rubbed off on her after all.

***

Adrien sat in the car (staring blankly, trying to wrap his head around everything that was happening) for a good five minutes before it finally registered that he still had Marinette’s box, and that he should probably open it. He did so, Plagg peeking out curiously from his shirt.

The smell hit him first, and he wondered how out of it he had to have been to not have noticed it that morning. If the cookies smelled so good _now_ , they must have been unbelievable earlier. And there had to have been at least twenty, all different kinds just begging to be eaten. His stomach growled longingly. The kale salad at lunch seemed like it had been days ago, and if he hadn’t been on his way to a photo shoot, he probably would have eaten half of the box.

Then he saw the note. He had been so distracted by the promise of sugar that he had managed to miss the simple pink heart laid on top. His name was written across the front in a now familiar handwriting, and he took a deep breath before opening it.

“Dear Adrien,

You mentioned that you’d be by yourself for the day, so I though these might cheer you up! You’re always welcome to come over if you want some company. I know you’re hard on yourself sometimes, but I wanted to remind you that you have people who care about you and think that you’re amazing.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love, Marinette”

He stared at the note, rereading it several times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. _Love?_

He couldn’t help the surely ridiculously goofy grin that spread across his face, though. “She thinks I’m amazing.”

Plagg groaned. “Yeah, yeah. But is there any cheese in there?”

Adrien ignored him, deciding that now counted as later, and he had said he’d call later. Just as he reached for his phone, however, the car rolled to a stop outside the shoot location. Really, this was just getting ridiculous now. Even _his_ luck wasn’t usually so bad. He sighed, carefully putting the lid back on the box and setting it on the seat. He’d call Marinette the first chance he got.

Since it seemed to be one of those days that chance didn’t come for another hour and a half. When the photographer finally called for a five minute break, Adrien was over by his bag before the man had finished speaking. He could at least send a text to his princess (maybe his lady? Oh, please, _please_ ), promising that he hadn’t forgotten about her, that there was no way to get out of the photo shoot and that as soon as he was finished- Why wasn’t his phone turning on? He pressed the power button a little harder, borderline frantic now. Why. Wasn’t. It. Turning. _On?_ He started pawing through his bag, hoping that his lady’s luck had rubbed off and a charger had miraculously found its way inside. It seemed his luck was all his own though, and he had raised his head to ask if anyone else had one when the director called an end to the shortest five minutes of Adrien’s life. He was immediately whisked away in a flurry of people. He consoled himself with the thought that the photo shoot _had_ to finish up soon, and he could call Marinette as soon as he got home.

The shoot lasted until nine that night, without another break.

***

Marinette was _done_. Completely, utterly done. With models and cats alike. Adrien hadn’t called. Normally she would have broken down, but her earlier crying had apparently purged that particular emotion. No, now she was just furious. Before leaving for her date with Nino (Marinette had insisted that they not cancel their plans for her), Alya had tried to console her with the idea that his phone was probably just dead. Marinette had been willing to consider that possibility- for a while. By the time dinner had come and gone, she had given up hope. As bad as it sounded, she almost hoped that something would happen on patrol just so that she could have something to take her anger out on.

As much as she normally looked forward to seeing her partner (and no, she was so, so very much not even _thinking_ about any feeling that might be even vaguely romantic right now), she really didn’t think she could handle his flirting and winks and all the casual touches that had come to feel so _normal_ and _perfect_ and _easy_.

Marinette took a deep breath, mostly because if she didn’t, she was pretty sure she was going to start screaming. Where the _hell_ was that cat? They were supposed to have started patrol half an hour ago, and his tardiness was not helping her mood in the slightest. He had never been this late, but she was too furious at the moment to really worry about him; besides, her partner could handle himself.

“Evening, my lady. Did you have a happy Valentine’s Day?” The familiar almost-purr came from a few feet behind her. It was an innocuous question; he usually asked about her day. (Mostly, she was sure, in an attempt to narrow down his list of possible Ladybugs.) It wasn’t his fault that her day had been shitty. It also wasn’t his fault that he happened to be the proverbial last straw, but that didn’t change the fact that he wound up facing six hours-worth of anger and hurt.

“No, I did _not_ have a ‘happy Valentine’s Day,’” she hissed, spinning to face him and stalk towards him. She wasn’t really registering any details- it was a bit hard to see through the red haze over her vision at the moment. “In fact, my day was so not-happy that I do not want to hear another _word_ about Valentine’s Day, or romance, or crushes or-or _anything!_ ” She was dangerously close to crying again, but she thought that if she started she may not be able to stop. “I have _had it_ with people who don’t care enough to keep their word. I am _done_ with feelings. I. Am. _Done!_ ”

Her breathing had gotten shaky without her quite realizing it, but her vision had finally cleared enough to recognize a couple things about the situation that may have been helpful to notice before her tirade.

One was that Chat Noir was holding a red rose with a black ribbon and tiny bell tied around the stem. It fell from his now limp grasp to the tiles below, balancing precariously on the roof peak.

The other was that his voice and expression had been clearly apprehensive before, tail twitching absently.

He didn’t look apprehensive anymore. With drooped ears and a shocked, almost blank face, he looked less like her confident kitty and more like a kicked puppy dog. A puppy dog on the verge of tears, from the way his eyes were shining.

“I apologize, Ladybug,” he said, voice wavering. He managed a halfhearted attempt at his usual playful bow, taking shaky steps backward. “I won’t inconvenience you with my presence anymore tonight.” And with that, he was gone, ignoring her outstretched arm and cry of “Chat!” as he sped off.

She gently bent to pick up the rose, the bell bringing a small, involuntary smile to her lips. She was about to turn and try to patrol when something caught her eye on the roof in the direction Chat had gone. She paced over, nearly falling off the roof in shock. Maybe her vision hadn’t cleared after all, because she could not be seeing what she thought she was seeing. She picked the offending object up almost mechanically. Maybe if she kept staring at it, it would transform into something else. Because she could _not_ be seeing her lucky charm right now. Because Adrien had that. So Chat couldn’t have dropped it. Because Adrien- _oh god._

“Adrien?” she whispered. She gently tucked the bracelet into her belt, taking even more care as she did the same with the rose. Still trying to find some sort of logical explanation, she turned to go back home. Paris would just have to hold itself together for one night.

There was no way she was going to be able to patrol tonight.

***

Adrien hadn’t slept last night. He had laid in his bed, even gotten under the covers, but all he could do was stare up at the ceiling. Plagg had tried to brush it off, joke, even finally resorting to offer encouragement, _anything_ to get some sort of reaction out of his charge. He had finally given up though, curling up on the pillow next to him.

Adrien had covered up the circles under his eyes. Couldn’t have an Agreste looking anything less than perfect, after all. He didn’t say anything to Nathalie as she handed him his schedule, and though she looked on the verge of saying something, she ultimately turned and left without a word. He ate his breakfast without really tasting it, the memory of Marinette’s cookies safely tucked away in his room making anything else seem inferior.

She probably hated him now. He was such an idiot. Why couldn’t he ever seem to do anything right?

His thoughts continued in much the same direction as he stepped out of the car at school, barely feeling the chill of the wind or hearing the chatter or his classmates.

He probably would have gone through the entire day- maybe even the rest of his life- in that manner, if a small hand hadn’t gently touched his arm. He glanced over, seeing concerned blue eyes and lots of pink.

“Adrien, can we talk?” Marinette asked softly. Her eyes darted to the rest of the students. “Somewhere a little more private.”

He nodded, amazed that she was even still speaking to him. That was apparently all the answer she needed, though, as she grabbed his wrist and half dragged him to the wall by the stairs.

“My phone died,” he finally blurted, suddenly remembering how to talk.

She smiled nervously at him. “I know. Nino told me.” She rummaged in her bag, finally pulling something out. “I just wanted to apologize for last night. Well, and give this back to you. You dropped it, and I still want you to have it.” She placed the object in his palm and curled his fingers around it.

“Last night? What are you-” He finally glanced at his hand, all thoughts flying out of his head as he recognized the lucky charm he had taken to carrying as Chat. He slowly lifted his head, noticing the black ribbon tied in a bow around a strap of her purse, the small golden bell he had put on the rose dangling from the center. He finally looked straight into blue eyes so familiar he couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized them before. “Ladybug?”

Her smile was more confident now, something he was more used to seeing accompanied by a mask. She stood on tip toe to press a kiss against his cheek before wrapping her arms around him tightly. “I really am sorry, kitty. I was just upset and hurt last night and I hadn’t realized what you were going to say and I never wanted to hurt you like that and-”

He finally figured out how to make his arms work, hugging her back just as hard. This was apparently all the reassurance she needed to stop her rambling. They stayed that way for maybe a minute before a small voice from inside Marinette’s purse piped up. “ _Finally_. Marinette, you almost made me lose the bet!”

Adrien glanced down to see a small red head with huge violet eyes smiling up at him. “Bet?” Okay, so maybe he hadn’t gotten words to work quite as well as he thought he had. In his defense, this was a lot to take in in one morning.

Plagg yawned and poked his head out of Adrien’s jacket. “You just got lucky, as usual.”

The little red kwami darted up to eye level, holding one arm out. “Tikki. It’s great to finally meet you, Adrien!”

He pulled away from Marinette enough to shake her arm. “Oh, and this is Plagg,” he said, his brain apparently deciding that now would be as good a time as any to kick in. “He doesn’t have any manners, so I’ll apologize for him in advance.”

Marinette giggled, scratching the little cat’s head with a finger. “It’s nice to meet you, Plagg.”

Plagg evidently decided that she passed muster, even offering her a nearly microscopic smile before darting out to hug Tikki. The little kwamis held each other for a moment before zipping back to their respective hiding places.

Adrien finally caught on to their conversation. “Wait, you knew?! Plagg, you’ve been letting me stress over this for months and you _knew_?!”

“Don’t get too mad at him,” Tikki said happily, “we never tell. It’s up to the two of you to find out for yourselves.”

Adrien glared at Plagg anyway, only stopping as Marinette giggled again. He was sure he was staring, but she looked so cute smiling like that with her cheeks pink from the cold. “Can I kiss you?”

Her cheeks went from pink to red almost instantly, but she nodded. He leaned forward, their lips gently pressing together. It wasn’t a very long kiss; he was pretty sure that that first kiss that had been erased from his memory had been longer.

It was still perfect.

It was slightly less perfect when Alya’s voice interrupted their moment. “Oh, _finally_!”

Both of them turned, Adrien hoping his makeup was hiding at least most of his blush. Alya was ginning widely, Nino giving Adrien a thumbs up from beside her. The other girl shook her head, laughing. “Come on, love bugs! Class is about to start!”

Adrien dropped his arms from around Marinette, opting instead to lace his fingers through hers. “Shall we, princess?” he asked with what he knew was definitely a Chat grin.

She smiled back at him. “Of course, kitty.”

Both of them decided that maybe Valentine’s Day wasn’t so awful after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize the Kim/Max thing kinda seemed just thrown in there, but I wanted to put it in and couldn't find a better way.   
> Let me know what you think. I'm Claire3467 on tumblr, feel free to message me about the show or anything else!
> 
> Also I'm a sucker for her calling him kitty, in case you didn't notice.


End file.
